LicensebyState

Moving to New Hampshire as a general contractor: every state's rule

New Hampshire does not issue a statewide general contractor license, so there is no reciprocity to speak of. Here is what that means in practice.

New Hampshire general contractor

No individual license at this level

Verified September 17, 2026· 6 sources

Issued by No contractor licensing authority (New Hampshire OPLC licenses the building trades and design professions only)

New Hampshire has no general, commercial, building or unlimited contractor license at any level of government. There is no contractor board, no classification system, no qualifying party, no trade or business-and-law examination, no net worth or financial statement test and no reciprocity list, so an out-of-state general contractor's license transfers nothing here - and equally, nothing is demanded in its place. New Hampshire is not one of the agencies that accept the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors, because it holds no contractor examination for that exam to stand in for. The occupations title of the Revised Statutes, RSA Title XXX, creates licenses for engineers, land surveyors, foresters, electricians and plumbers, and the statutory roster of licensing boards in RSA 310:2 adds architects, landscape architects, home inspectors, septic system evaluators, natural scientists, professional geologists, manufactured housing installers under the Installation Standards Board, and the Mechanical Licensing Board that licenses gas fitters; no chapter and no board covers building contractors. A commercial builder moving to New Hampshire works directly with the local building department that issues permits and inspects the work, and makes sure the electrical, plumbing, gas fitting, septic, well, asbestos and lead abatement scope is performed by people who hold the matching state licenses. Where a job is work on a residence, the notice and opportunity-to-repair rules of RSA 359-G apply to that contract above $5,000 even though the builder is unlicensed; commercial buildings are outside that chapter, and disputes over them fall back on the contract and the Consumer Protection Act.

Related